The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
GG-1000x50

Mental Detox Week





Happy Mental Detox week! Yeah, so Mental Detox week began on Monday and I have yet to actually turn anything off - or at least the things that AdBusters, who launched the original TV Turn-Off week (now renamed Mental Detox Week) back in 1994, want me to. AdBusters has changed the guidelines to be both more forgiving and more inclusive. Sign of the times: I actually (unintentionally) haven't turned on my TV at all this week, which means if it was still plain-old TV Turn-Off Week, I'd be all "Hey, no problem! I can go without TV easily," but the Internet?! Here's the thing, a job that requires staring at Snap Judgments and bus stop street art on the Internets all day + IFFB + newly downloaded episodes of My So-Called Life, which I can't believe I'm still obsessing over, via Miro + Does seeing live music count? Because I've already done that twice this week = Too Many Complications for Mental Detoxification. FAIL.

Here's what AdBusters wants me to do:

"Today you’re not going to listen to your iPod. You aren’t going to stare at a computer screen any more than you absolutely have to. Today you won’t worry about unanswered email, and you’re not going to login to Facebook. You’ll cut the time you spend on digital devices right down to the bone.

In the evening maybe you will watch your favorite TV show for an hour, but after that you switch off, have a conversation, wash the dishes, read for a bit, and just relax. You do that for five days, and then on Friday night you make a decision to unplug completely for the whole weekend.

For a couple of days you might feel like an addict in withdrawal: peevish, agitated, and distracted. But then something will happen. Your over-stimulated brain will cleanse itself. You’ll relax. You’ll feel calmer, more grounded."

The fact that all of this is posted on a website (and now I'm reposting it on a blog) is sort of cloaked in irony - how are we supposed to spread the word about Mental Detox Week and actually detox at the same time? Smoke signals? Snail-mail chain letters? Don't get me wrong, Mental Detox week would be great if I could take the week off and go camping at Yosemite, gather a group of friends and a cooler of cold beverages (but no road-tripping tunes, of course!!), but I can't. I guess this is just my way of saying "Hi, My name is Caitlin, and I'm addicted to glorious, musical, visually-stimulating technology, AKA mental toxins."

-- Caitlin E. Curran

| More

Leave a Comment

Login | Not a member yet? Click here to Join
 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
All Blogs
ADVERTISEMENT
Related Articles

1112_cormega_list
Boston Phoenix
Alpha Cormega
Published 12/17/2010 by CHRIS FARAONE
A Queens rapper sees the real world through Boston

Local_JB&DF-1_list
Boston Phoenix
Jeff Byrd & Dirty Finch kick out the laid-back jams
Published 12/17/2010 by CHRIS CONTI
Digging their roots

more by Will Spitz
Worlds collide | February 03, 2009
Gone, baby, gone | January 07, 2009
A flair for the drama | January 06, 2009
Stars Kill Rock | October 27, 2008
Wet fuse | October 27, 2008

 See all articles by: Will Spitz

Follow the Phoenix
  • newsletter
  • twitter
  • facebook
  • youtube
  • rss
Latest Comments
Romney's Easy Firmness - I have posted this already here before You guys should stop complaining because, one the health care...

By johnbaudoin on 12-15-2010 in Talking Politics

Romney's Easy Firmness - Whoa there, David. The Senate only passed cloture yesterday. Unless I'm mistaken, the House has to...

By Foxed on 12-14-2010 in Talking Politics

Golden Globalization - And what were they thinking having Josh Duhamel read the nominees? Dude can barely read. Torturous.

By Ashley Rigazio on 12-14-2010 in Outside The Frame

Suffering Sarah Palin - Um, wasn't Helen Keller a suffragist, a pacifist, a socialist, and a founding member of the ACLU...

By Avi Green on 12-13-2010 in Talking Politics

Emerson College is gaga for GaGa - You call that flawlessly executed?! You must have gone to Emerson.

By M on 12-12-2010 in Phlog

Latest Comments from Phlog
Most Viewed
Burn of the week, courtesy of Julia Child
Liveblogging Franzen on Oprah
NYC Guerrilla Literary Reading
[phlipcam video] Skimask @ Great Scott
Kick 'Em All: Metallica's Kirk Hammett takes down a little kid on stage
FORMAT BUSTER: Oak Lonetree & Egadz Drop FREE Audio Book – “I Must Be Dreaming”
RADIx Show with Live Art Sunday Night @ All Asia
Most Viewed from Phlog
Search Blogs
 
Phlog Archives
Wednesday, December 15, 2010  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
thePhoenix.com
Phoenix Media/Communications Group
Copyright © 2010 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group